Talking About My Shelf

A slice of April

Missy Laneous April 25, 2011

Wowzer what a month April has been! The London Book Fair kicked off with a buzzing start for its fortieth year and Earls Court was heaving. I went along on the Sunday to set up our stand and to be honest I was doubting that it would all be ready for the Monday morning opening. It felt like one of those horrific Changing Room episodes where hammers are flying in all directions and the carpets not laid and the family are pulling up on the driveway. However I was relieved on Monday morning when I found Earls Court transformed from a manic building site into a swanky international exhibition centre. I managed to get an hour off on Tuesday to attend the Graphic Novels for Boys seminar held in the Children's Theatre, where a panel of authors, publishers and illustrators discussed the most effective ways of encouraging young boys to read. The guests included representatives from SelfMadeHero and Panini/Marvel and Eoin (It's pronounced Owen) Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series which has since been adapted into a best-selling graphic novel. The panel mainly discussed the process of adapting classic novels and the best ways in which to launch graphic novels on to a competitive market. It would seem young boys are pretty hard to impress and unless you dangle a 'gross-out factor' ie, torn limbs and boggling eyes, in front of their faces, comics are unlikely to hold their attention let alone encourage them to read a sequel. Most notably the panel also suggested that young girls are similarly drawn into reading fiction through first following graphic novels, in particular the Manga publications.

I think what I find most intriguing about graphic novels is their accessibility. Any age group can still embrace graphic novels without the sometimes judgemental social stigma that was once associated with comic strips. Now consumers can either go to their newsagent or bookseller, order online, or download an app allowing them one-tap access to hundreds of graphic novels. I for one read on my Android phone as well as ordering novels from Amazon. I think it is this tranferable nature of the graphic novel that makes them so popular and such a great starting point for the younger generation. Anthony Browne once said 'Illustrated books are for everybody at any age, not books to be left behind as we grow older' and I whole heartedly agree.

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Naming the Bones.

Review April 10, 2011

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Children's Laureate Launch

Children's books April 06, 2011

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The Deer Wedding by Penny Simpson

Review March 25, 2011

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London Book Fair Market Focus- Russia

London Book Fair March 24, 2011

On a mild March evening members of The Society of Young Publishers met at Pushkin House, Bloomsbury Square to drink a glass of wine and to discuss the accelerated development the Russian publishing market. It was fascinating and one of those times where you are alerted to the fact that you know nothing about much, including Russian literature and the incredible path it has taken over the last 20 years.
Five guest speakers came along:

Andrew Nurnberg : Founder of Andrew Nurnberg Associates
Lynette Owen: Copyright Director of Pearson Education Ltd.
Amy Webster: International Key Accounts Manager at the London Book Fair

Zinovy Zinik: Russian-born novelist and writer of the soon to be launched History Thieves

Rosamund Bartlett: translator, lecturer and writer of Chekhov: Scenes from a Life

Amy Webster led the discussion by first explaining that the London Book Fair has held a market focus for the past 8 years and focuses on emerging economies, increasing trade links and international relations. This year the focus is of course Russia and 2012 will be focused on China, a powerful presence on the international market. Call me ignorant but I did wonder why they had chosen Russia, as the only literature I was aware of were the classics, but that was my error and their exact reason for choosing such a creative country. The London Book Fair is helping to launch 50 publishers, and 40 Russian authors onto the centre-stage of the Western market. Russian literature currently gets the least British investment and yet has so many talented authors, so the book fair seems the perfect place to showcase these talents and open up the minds of our sometimes culturally complacent audience. The long standing tradition of highly recognised works of literature has now been handed down to a fresher, energetic market and I for one will be milling around the London Book Fair and exploring the vibrant marketplace.

Although I thought I knew about the Soviet Union and its subsequent collapse in 1991, I had never considered the impact liberation had on literature and other modes of creative output. Andrew Nurnberg gave fantastic accounts of his experiences not only with the Russian government but also with the big cheeses that now run the ever-expanding industry. The State ran publishing houses that didn't agree to advances based on copies sold but on the thickness of the book: the more you wrote the more money you made. Not a great model for those that were unable to write what they wanted. Print runs were and still are limited as resources will always be expensive, but they are no longer controlled by the State. The collapse opened up the floodgates and allowed new waves of writers, publishers, editors and designers to roll around Moscow and St. Petersburg, free from censorship and finally able to publish materials they knew people would buy and cherish. However, the initial surge of interest in the industry soon subsided as people realised publishing is not the industry where you sit on mountains of gold. Only a few were left to construct the marketplace and build committees, setting the path for future generations - these people of course made mountains of gold (and will quite happily pay extortionate amounts of money to entice a best-selling yet loyal author away from their local independent publisher).

Although China is currently the biggest fish in the water, releasing 210,000 titles a year, Russia is catching up, producing no fewer than 100,000 new titles - it would seem the race is on!

There is a big problem with piracy in Russia, a threat that was touched on at the SYP Question Time. Although it doesn't seem to be a big deal over here, in Russia it is very common and mostly free, people don't want to profit from scanning in books, they just want to share the novels. A very noble thought, but not a structure the publishing industry can hope to cling to.

Lynette Owen discussed the decline in educational book sales after the Soviet collapse. The immediate reaction of many people in Russia after 1991 was to buy exciting books that
they had never before been able to read - much like a child in a sweet shop, they went nuts for fiction and abandoned their long love affair with academic books, and the industry felt this change in tides. New publishing houses didn't want to produce books that would require specialist staff and result in a slow return on investments, they wanted to produce best-sellers and fast. The international market also felt the pinch as the Russian market clamped down and revelled in its own local writers.
Now however, the tides are changing again. Russia is opening its doors to the world's trade and is beginning to pick up an interest in non-fiction textbooks, particularly economics, business management and surprisingly, self-help guides.
Further more, the luck has changed for British publishers and authors as Russia has finally updated its copyright clause. Moving from the Life+ 25 years to the more widely accepted Life+ 75 years Russia is now playing fairly.

Rosamund Bartlett gave us a fantastic insight into the mind of Anton Chekhov who has been an invaluable influence on her academic career. From a Russian degree at the University of Durham to becoming a lecturer and teaching Chekhov to her students, Rosamund explained that she came to see Chekhov not just as a Russian writer but as a great writer. Among her vast publications include the translated letters of Chekhov, his stories and a biography of both Chekhov and Tolstoy, both of which I will definitely be reading. Not only that but she told us the wonderful story of the fall and rise of Chekhov's home in Yalta.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Yalta was absorbed by the Ukrainian boundaries, and the once government-funded house and museum came under disrepair as the Ukrainian government turned its back on the cornerstone of Russian literature. Writing his biography, she visited the house and was devastated to see it had fallen from glory, the modest house now resembled a mouldy hazard. Campaigning to save Chekhov's house has been the ambition of Rosamund for years. By hosting fund-raisers such as Chekhov Anniversary Readings at Hampstead Heath and by finally receiving backing from the Ukrainian government, Rosamund Bartlett has been able to see Chekhov's house slowly but surely return to the author's home.

Our last and by no means least, guest speaker was Zinovy Zinik, who raised the unexpected topic of emigration. He suggested that emigration can be used as a literary device for authors, explaining that you can only truly write about your homeland once you have left it behind. The past becomes the novel and you as the author are able to view your past with refreshed eyes. Zinovy explained that he sees himself as a Soviet citizen, yet as he left in the 1970's, trading a one-way ticket for his Soviet passport, he can no longer return to his country has it technically no longer exists. Just as, he explained he considers himself Jewish, having moved to Israel, he does not attend a synagogue or consider himself a Jew. Even more fascinating was his suggestion that identity is often a fictitious product of our minds. Our past is wrongly imposed on us as strangers ask where we originate from and what profession we trade in. Further questions were raised of Russian authors who had fled the Soviet control, are they still free to write about their homeland after so much has changed? Are they aware of the newly liberated and culturally conscientious society? Or are they burdened by their memories of Russia's past and unable to move on? Zinovy's new book The History Thieves concentrates on the assumed identities of individuals and how they make connections with the rational and irrational, reality and imaginary. Zinovy argues that fabricated memories occur when our present selves look back on our past, often in a nostalgic light recreating the past as we wish to remember it. Another book I shall have to read soon!

Well that's it for another SYP event, the countdown to the London Book Fair begins!

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A Boat in the Night

poetry March 17, 2011

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Translations

Review March 17, 2011

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Love You More by Lisa Gardner

Review March 16, 2011

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Room by Emma Donoghue

Review March 14, 2011

I have been meaning to write this review for a week but it has been one of those books that has been difficult to sum up so I've taken my time pondering what to write.

The fierce novel is primarily a memoir of a five year old, the language is simple and the nouns are delivered with childlike pride as Jack, the protagonist meticulously names, records and personifies all the objects which he encounters. Beginning with a warm description of his fifth birthday, Jack slowly but surely unveils the true nature of his little world - a four walled cell which he calls Home but in which his mother, Ma, has been a prisoner of for seven years, and which he was born into - never having once stepped into Outside.

Old Nick is the captor who snatched Ma from her college campus, leaving her parents to believe she is dead. Jack describes how Door 'beep beeps at nine when I'm supposed to be switched off ' an innocent observation which adds a horrifying dimension to this sensational tale. I cannot describe the terror I felt when I was reading about Old Nick, Emma Donoghue created such a demoniacal character that you felt a surge of dread reading the 'beep beep' of Door and knowing who was about to step onto the page.

Emma Donoghue has previously defended her novel to interviewers, explaining 'to say Room is based on the Josef Fritzl case is too strong' however as the reader it is hard not to see the similarities between Ma's ordeal and the imprisonment imposed upon Fritzl's captives. Although Donoghue did of course spend alot of time researching the impact of child-rearing in captivity and the Fritzl case obviously lended some of its horrific details to the novel, the author also claims she spent time talking to her own friends and researching their own individual methods of bringing up children, which she then implanted in Ma's mentality.

What I found most endearing about this compelling narrative was the relationship between Ma and Jack and how Ma fought her inner demons in order to protect Jack's vulnerable naivety. Often having days where she is Gone, Jack witnesses his mother's depression first hand, yet she always has the strength to carry on the next day and bring herself back from the dark abyss and into the arms of her loving son.

I found it fascinating how Jack develops a coherent vocabulary whilst living such a small life, and how, through his mother's determination, he becomes her hero running for his life and metaphorically tearing down the constrictive walls of Room.

Although at times this novel makes you shudder with revulsion, it also sheds a sensitive light upon the tender relationship between mother and child and how rearing a child in captivity can arguably be safer than releasing them into the big and sometimes scary Outside. Jack is obviously shocked when, after his fifth birthday he spots an airplane outside their skylight and questions whether the things on TV really are fantasy as Ma describes them. The realization of a greater world outside the walls of Room are almost too much for the brave five-year-old to conceive, yet it is his willingness to please his mother that enables him to place one foot in front of the other and boldly step into the brave new world he has so far been unaware of. Understandably Ma has invented a story for Jack so he is unaware of his imprisonment, not wanting him to realize he is trapped, she tells him that all the people on TV are not real, but fake people, and the only people in the world are Ma, Jack - and Old Nick.

This is a story of triumph, good over evil and right over wrong. And it was so refreshing to hear such a dark and compelling story coming from a beautifully innocent five-year-old. Jack's strong and clear voice is definitely a deliberate watermark as Emma Donoghue once said, 'who can tell his tale better than five-year-old Jack himself?'